Young people growing up in England’s most disadvantaged areas are feeling more hopeful about their future study and work prospects thanks to targeted Government investment, according to new research from the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Durham.

A new JAMA Viewpoint urges a middle-ground vaccine policy: acknowledge shared blame, move beyond absolutist tactics, and rebuild public trust through education, clinician communication, and community-based outreach.

Students from less wealthy backgrounds are more likely to attend schools where learning a foreign language to GCSE is considered optional – and not necessarily even encouraged – new research shows. The University of Cambridge study of 615 state schools in England found that poorer students are disproportionately concentrated in schools that deprioritise language learning. This significantly reduces their chances of learning a foreign language after the age of 14. The research identified a seven percentage point gap between the proportion of disadvantaged students at schools where languages were optional at GCSE, and at schools where they were considered ‘core’. It then found an enormous difference, exceeding 50 percentage points, in the average proportion of students at these schools who studied a language to GCSE. These findings suggest that disadvantaged students have been worst affected by the national decline in language study since 2004, when GCSE languages ceased to be compulsory.

INFORMS, the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research (O.R.), AI, analytics and data science, has named 12 distinguished leaders as 2025 INFORMS Fellows, one of the highest professional honors in operations research, analytics and AI.

Collectively, this year’s Fellows represent trailblazing contributions in academia and industry and have advanced breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, supply chain resilience, clean energy, healthcare delivery and transportation systems, while also shaping the next generation of talent and serving as trusted advisors to organizations worldwide.